Month / November 2010

[…] if you were looking for a single excuse to buy a new video game console and racing wheel and spend the entirety of this holiday season in pure gaming bliss, we’re sorry to report that the long awaited Gran Turismo 5 isn’t it.

Let me rephrase: Gran Turismo 5 alone isn’t worth getting a PlayStation 3. I agree, but if you have a PS3, and you like racing games, GT5 is a no-brainer.

JPMorgan, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets behind Bank of America, will distribute iPads free of charge to all associates in its global investment banking division, the Nov. 24 e-mail shows. Employees will get to keep the device as long as they remain at the unit until the pilot program ends on May 1, 2011.

Two managing directors at JPMorgan, as to why:

We believe there are real benefits in our working environment that can be realized using this device – as well as the personal productivity and enjoyment that come as part of the package.

I believe Apple’s iPhone is rapidly becoming a niche device. Its restrictions are too numerous, its approach too condescending, and its choices too few to have the broad appeal it needs to succeed on a grander scale in the long run.

In short, Apple may always have its share of fans among consumers who don’t mind living in its “walled garden,” but there’s no way it can compete in the market as a whole with the diverse, compelling and powerful platform that is Android.

The Mac can be considered a niche device: its market share of the overall PC market is quite small. The iPhone may also end up having a small slice of the overall smartphone market. I don’t see this as a problem.

A curated “walled garden” experience is exactly what I want so I can get things done, be connected, have fun, and not have to tinker with the device itself. I am thoroughly satisfied with my Mac experience, and aside from AT&T, I can say that about my iPhone, too. Satisfaction is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

The swiveling, 10.1-inch, 1366×768-resolution display on the Inspiron Duo is the system’s main attraction — or at least it should be, right? Obviously, we’re impressed with the unique convertible form factor, but flat out, the quality of the LCD doesn’t match the Duo’s top notch industrial design. […] Now, because the screen vertically rotates, the poor vertical viewing angles are extremely noticeable, and while you’re not going to be looking at anything on the screen at an 90-degree angle, even at about 35 degrees colors start to fade and distort. [..]

A cheap, poor performing LCD especially in a tablet is poor product design. And so is the decision to use stock Windows.

AV Watch → Engadget: The Eizo DuraVision FDF2301-3D is thick, but packed behind the 23-inch 1920×1080 LCD is stuff that allows for glasses-free 3D viewing. From what I can glean from the Japanese text at AV Watch, the 3D monitor makes use of a “Directional Backlight” as well as these other technologies: Side by Side, Anaglyph, Frame Sequential. I would have thought with how thick this is that Eizo might have used two 23-inch LCD panels for real 3D.

In an ideal world, your Android phone would run like a dream forever. This being real life, we can’t always expect that sort of robust performance out of our devices. Things can happen that slow your phone and damage the experience. Maybe you install a lot of apps, and some of them are acting a little mischievous, or maybe something has just gone wrong deep down in the system where you have little chance of fixing it. At times like this, you could agonize over tweaks and possible fixes, or you could spend time uninstalling different combinations of apps. But maybe wiping the phone clean and starting over is the best overall option sometimes.